Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
On Friday, the Israeli occupation army issued new “evacuation orders” to Palestinian families in northern Gaza, demanding their immediate relocation to the southern part of the devastated coastal region.
UNRWA says only ‘six or so’ days of flour remain for distribution in Gaza
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), one of the largest providers of food, said Friday that only “six or so” days of flour remain for distribution in Gaza as no new aid has entered for 19 days.
“We can stretch that by giving people less,” Sam Rose from UNRWA told a UN briefing in Geneva. “But we’re talking days now rather than weeks.”
Rose stressed that it is “the longest period” of no supplies whatsoever that have entered Gaza since October 2023.
No modern example of entire child population needing mental health support like in Gaza: UNICEF
UNICEF on Friday highlighted the extreme mental health crisis facing Palestinian children in Gaza, saying the situation is unprecedented in modern history.
“We don’t have an example in modern history in terms of an entire child population needing mental health support,” spokesperson James Elder told a UN briefing in Geneva. “We are losing a generation in terms of education and in terms of a mental health crisis that we’ve not seen before.”
Elder said children’s rights in Gaza have been “ignored and denied by choice” and called on those with power to act.
He added that 180,000 doses of essential childhood vaccines and incubators for preterm babies have been blocked at the border since Israel halted humanitarian aid from entering in early March.
“Protecting children, getting aid to children is not optional, it’s law,” he said.
Israel will annex parts of Gaza until captives freed, says defense minister
The Israeli defense minister warned Hamas on Friday that the army will permanently seize and annex territory in Gaza if captives are not released.
Israel Katz announced that the army will also expand the buffer zone his country has established along the Gaza Strip’s boundary with Israel.
“The more Hamas persists in its refusal to release the hostages, the more territory it will lose, which will be annexed to Israel,” he stressed.
“I have directed the IDF [military] to expand the manoeuvre, take control of more ground and hold it permanently to protect Israeli communities and soldiers.”
Annexation of occupied territory is illegal under international law.
According to State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce, talk of annexing Gaza is “a distraction.”
Bruce said Friday, “those of you who care about these issues [must] keep in our minds the nature of what’s in front of us, which is still to stop the wholesale slaughter of people [Israeli Jews], the use [by Hamas] of other individuals as human shields, that the general chaos that that causes, and the fact that there are ways to stop it.
“Others, perhaps they want us to always talk about something else, to get people distracted about that thing so you stop looking at what is the thing that we need to deal with immediately,” she added.
NOTE: The rhetoric of Hamas using Palestinians as human shields has been a hallmark of Israel’s genocidal war, a lethal narrative that has been repeatedly bolstered by senior U.S. officials (even though in reality Israel has been extensively documented using Palestinians as human shields).
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Egypt denies claims of plans to relocate 500,000 Palestinians to North Sinai
Egypt’s State Information Service (SIS) declared in a statement on Friday, “Egypt categorically and completely denies the claims circulated by some media outlets that it is prepared to temporarily relocate 500,000 Gaza residents to a designated city in North Sinai as part of Gaza’s reconstruction.”
The agency described the allegations as “false and entirely inconsistent with Egypt’s firm and principled position,” which has been clear since the early days of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023.
Cairo reiterated its “absolute and final rejection of any attempt to displace Palestinian brothers—whether forcibly or voluntarily—to any location outside Gaza, particularly to Egypt.”
It further stressed that any such displacement would amount to “the liquidation of the Palestinian cause and a grave threat to Egypt’s national security.”
Israel has been withholding nearly $2B in Palestinian tax revenues for 6 years: Ministry
The Palestinian Ministry of Finance said Thursday that Israel has been withholding nearly $2 billion in Palestinian tax revenues since 2019, describing this as a “flagrant violation” of all signed agreements.
In a statement, the ministry said Israel continues to withhold these clearance funds under various pretexts.
Clearance revenues represent taxes and customs duties imposed on goods imported into Palestinian territories either via Israel or through Israeli border crossings, including land, sea and air.
According to the Oslo Accords signed between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel in 1993, Israel is responsible for collecting these funds and transferring them monthly to the Palestinian government, deducting a 3% administrative fee to cover collection costs.
The Palestinian Ministry of Finance said Israel has been withholding approximately 7 billion shekels (around $2 billion) from 2019 until last February.
The total Israeli deductions from clearance revenues amounted to 20.6 billion shekels ($5.6 billion) from 2012 through February, according to the ministry’s statement.
The ministry considered Israel’s continued withholding of funds a blatant violation of agreements that directly affects the Palestinian economy and the livelihood of citizens.
The Palestinian government said that in cooperation with international partners and relevant stakeholders, it continues pressing for the release of these funds and “an end to the illegal policy of deductions from our people’s funds.”
On May 23 last year, the World Bank said the Palestinian Authority is at the risk of financial collapse.
RELATED: UN records highest number of Israeli checkpoints in 2 decades across occupied Palestinian territory
UN reports high illegal Israeli settlement growth, violence in Palestinian territories
The UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process on Friday expressed deep concern over Israel’s ongoing settlement expansion and escalating violence in the occupied Palestinian territories, warning that the situation is becoming increasingly dire.
Addressing the UN Security Council, Sigrid Kaag presented the latest report on the implementation of Resolution 2334, which calls for Israel to cease all illegal settlement activity.
“Settlement activity has, nevertheless, continued at a high rate,” she said, noting that Israeli authorities advanced or approved approximately 10,600 housing units in the occupied West Bank, including 4,920 in East Jerusalem.
Kaag also highlighted the sharp rise in demolitions of Palestinian-owned structures. “Israeli authorities demolished, seized, sealed, or forced people to demolish 460 structures, displacing 576 people, including 287 children and 149 women,” she said.
Echoing UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ condemnation of the humanitarian crisis, Kaag stated, “Nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
NOTE: Israel has illegally built around 280 settlements on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are home to more than 700,000 illegal settlers. Israeli settlements and settlers on Palestinian land are a violation of international law, and considered by many Palestinians to be the main barrier to any lasting peace agreement.
Some settler groups, moreover, have a history of violence against Palestinians, often with the assistance of Israeli military forces.
In a landmark advisory opinion on July 19, 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land “illegal” and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
According to the Israel Policy Forum, the Israeli government’s initial priority in establishing settlements was security. Israeli leaders established Jewish “communities” illegally in the Palestinian West Bank in order control territory over which Israel does not exercise sovereignty. and to provide for the country’s perceived security needs. A civilian settler population could also act as the first line of defense against an invasion.
Some analysts have suggested that this placement of Israeli civilians on what may be considered hostile territory (i.e. non-Israeli land) amounts to making settlers human shields.
Under Threat From Trump, Columbia University Agrees to Change Protest Policies
Columbia University agreed Friday to nearly all demands from federal regulators after the U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration pulled $400 million in grants and contracts, accusing the school of failing to stop antisemitic incidents in the wake of the October 7 attacks in Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.
As part of the sweeping reforms, the university announced a ban on student protests inside academic buildings, and said it will revamp its long-standing process for student discipline.
Columbia will also require protesters to show ID cards and will ban face coverings “for the purposes of concealing one’s identity”, with health-related or religious exemptions possible.
The move comes amid broader federal crackdowns on campus speech, including visa revocations and deportations targeting international students who participate in pro-Palestinian activism.
The Columbia University president also announced the adoption of a new definition of antisemitism.
The announcement drew immediate condemnation from some faculty and free speech groups, who accused the university of caving to President Donald Trump’s largely unprecedented intrusion upon the school’s academic freedom.
“Columbia’s capitulation endangers academic freedom and campus expression nationwide,” Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement.
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He Sued Trump Over Free Speech. Then ICE Demanded He Turn Himself In.
On Friday, federal officials ordered prominent activist and Cornell University graduate student Momodou Taal to surrender to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, Taal’s attorneys confirmed to The Intercept.
Taal, a dual Gambian and British citizen in the U.S. on a student visa, is currently suing the Trump administration to block its targeting of international students protesting in support of Palestinian rights.
Along with another Cornell graduate student and professor, Taal sued the Trump administration for violating their First Amendment rights, arguing that the targeted deportations of pro-Palestinian activists has a chilling effect on free speech.
The suit challenged two of President Donald Trump’s executive orders used to crack down on people advocating for Palestine.
Taal’s lawyers are now arguing that the Trump administration’s request for Taal to turn himself in to ICE is a retaliation for his lawsuit and for his pro-Palestinian beliefs.
Eric Lee, an attorney representing Taal in the lawsuit called the government’s demand for Taal to turn himself in “extremely unusual” and “very concerning.”
“These types of things do not happen in a democracy where people have the right to seek redress of grievances of the government,” Lee said (continue reading here).
RELATED: Columbia Admissions Guidance for Undocumented Immigrants Vanishes From Site
Holocaust survivor questioned by police over Gaza protest
Protesters gathered on Friday outside a London police station in support of an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor questioned as part of an investigation into alleged public order offenses during a pro-Palestine demonstration.
Walking with the aid of a stick up the gentle slope from The Strand, and wearing a grey overcoat, a green scarf and a flat cap, Stephen Kapos smiled and waved as he passed through cheering supporters and up the steps into Charing Cross Police Station at 2.40 pm.
Supporters waved Palestinian flags and banged drums chanting “Defend Stephen Kapos”. Among them was at least one other Holocaust survivor and a number of descendants of survivors who unfurled a banner which read: “Holocaust survivor descendants against genocide”.
Mark Etkind, the son of a survivor of the Lodz ghetto and the Buchenwald concentration camp, told Middle East Eye it was “absurd” that Jews such as Kapos were facing “persecution by the police” for protesting against the war in Gaza.
NOTE: A large number of the protesters in the West have been Jewish – a fact that is generally ignored by politicians and mainstream media. Their premise, that protests against the genocide in Gaza are somehow endangering Jews, is not rooted in reality.
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IMEMC Daily Reports
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – MARCH 21, 2025 (ongoing count):
- At least 50,560 Palestinians killed, 120,853 injured – including:
- at least 49,617 killed in Gaza (~14,550 children) -not including the latest attacks
- at least 943 killed in the West Bank (~187 children)
- at least 112,950 injured in Gaza
- at least 7,903 injured in the West Bank
According to Palestinian authorities, at least 150 people were killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza during the ceasefire, and Israel committed at least 962 ceasefire violations since the ceasefire came into force in November.
WAR STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 (Hamas attack) – JANUARY 22, 2025 (Ceasefire):
Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – January 19, 2025: at least 48,143 – including at least 47,283 in Gaza (~20,600 children), and 916 in the West Bank (~183 children). Palestinian injuries: at least 118,472 – including at least 111,629 in Gaza, and 7,000 in the West Bank.
Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 11,000 more are still buried under rubble.
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – January 19, 2025: ~1,616 (or 1,590) – including ~1,139 on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 436 (or 405) military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza, 46 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel.
NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.
- Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
- Flashback: The Israeli oligarch behind world forum to battle “antisemitism”attended by kings & presidents
- A child in Gaza watched his mother burn alive. Then he died too.
- The Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Farce
- Mahmoud Khalil’s Attorney on Breaking Developments in Detained Columbia Graduate’s Case
- 18 March 2025: The day 183 children in Gaza were massacred by Israel
- The Case Against Mahmoud Khalil: How The Israel Lobby Fueled a Campus Crackdown
- Photos: Names and faces of children killed in Israel’s latest offensive
- Jared Kushner’s Firm, Backed by Gulf States, Becomes Top Shareholder in Israeli Companies Tied to UN Settlements Blacklist
- ‘I am a political prisoner’: Mahmoud Khalil says he’s being targeted for political beliefs
- The Last Time Pro-Palestinian Activists Faced Deportation
- The Israeli-American Trump mega-donor behind speech crackdowns
- Anne Applebaum of the Atlantic Magazine & Columbia’s Pulitzer Board advocated killing Palestinian journalists
- Israel doesn’t care about the captives. It always planned to reboot the genocide
- President Trump: Stop Bombing Yemen and Exit the Middle East!
- From USS Liberty to Rachel Corrie: Israel’s Attacks on U.S. You Probably Didn’t Know About
- 16 yrs ago, Chas Freeman was smeared out of a job at DNI, too
- Debunking 6 AIPAC Myths About the US-Israel Relationship
- Pro-Israel Groups Urge Trump to Sanction Palestinian NGOs Out of Existence
- Professor At Center of Columbia University Deportation Scandal Is Former Israeli Spy
- ‘We are holding slaves’: Israeli soldier reveals systematic use of Palestinian ‘human shields’ in Gaza
